s 1,2

economic

Ending Welfare

April 13, 1995

Q: What are the deficits of the welfare system in industrially developed capitalist countries? (If welfare systems are too diverse to characterize as a group, then the question should be made specific to the United States.)

You know, the system of welfare has come about because of the economic instability of this country. In fact, in all of the Western countries the welfare system is a kind of patchwork for a sick economy. It is not the type of compassionate system that is discussed in Prout. You cannot repair an economy simply by patching a little patch over the bottom end. Still there is suffering due to an imbalanced economy based upon the greedy desires of a few. It is not for the welfare of all.

Now, the welfare system is based upon the capitalist model. This model is one which emphasizes the acquisition of wealth and the centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few economic giants. The welfare system is a kind of platitude to ease the conscience of the rich saying, "We are taking care of the poor." But in fact they are taking care of no one. By this system, they continue to enslave the poor. That is not to say the minimum needs of people should not be met. There must be a system to meet the minimum needs of the people. Yet if that system is a part of a system which gathers wealth to a few and takes the power away from the great majority of the people, takes the control of the economy away from the common man, then it is exploitative. It would be better that there be a locally based economy in which the common person may find a place for himself, for herself.

In this system of state welfare, the people who get this welfare are displaced human beings. They have no place in this society. They have no place in this economy. They are not retrained; they are not committed to a given trade. They are simply displaced persons.

I would propose that an economy be locally based and smaller. And if people find themselves in distress, then they are not only supported by the economy, but are given encouragement to be in one trade or another, and their welfare is taken over by that trade. They are trained, they are given work, they are supported while they get back on their feet. But they are not simply doled money to keep them quiet, to pacify them, to make them a slave of the system. They become active voting members in the trade in which they have committed themselves, and they are taught and they must learn. They are given duties -- maybe small at first -- and then allowed to work their way up according to their capacity. They are not simply left to degenerate.

If they are unable to work, if they are a mother with small children abandoned by the husband, if they have some serious medical condition in which they cannot work, then it is the duty of a compassionate society to care for them and to give them what they need. Not only to give them food on the table, to give them some mechanism for hope in their lives, but to give them something constructive. Even the mother at home with her children may do some sewing at home. She may do something which she may feel is increasing her worth. She may get some training, some education. While she cares for the children, she may take a home study course so that she may be able to improve her lot. When her children are a bit older, she may be able to get a job then. Or a person who has some kind of injury or incapacity, they may study or they may learn a meditation. They may learn a particular trade, they may pursue some philosophical interests, they may be encouraged to utilize their skills, their abilities, to the maximum potential.

Each and every person has potentials and they should be encouraged to utilize these potentials to the maximum. They should not be simply paid to be the slaves of society, to be the downtrodden hopeless people. They must be given hope and a way to better themselves. There should be no class of people such as the welfare class who are hopeless and downtrodden and stigmatized. There should be no class of such people. As a person runs into difficulty, they are given a place and they are integrated. They do not become a class of people.